Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome moves by the Minister for Finance to deal with bankers' pay. Bank officials are essentially public sector workers and it is only right that their pay should be reduced. It is not the big headline pay we should be thinking of but there are numerous bankers on ¤100,000 plus who can easily take a hit in their wages. No loss making business could possibly justify such huge remuneration for staff. Sometimes the part played by banks in the crash is forgotten. Although it is way too late to talk about it, it is a real pity that reckless lending is not a criminal offence because many of these bankers should be in jail. We could consider making reckless lending a criminal offence in legislation.